Becky Rubright says, 'We're done,' ends campaign for mayor of Tampa

TAMPA — Acknowledging that "campaigns don't run on good intentions," Becky Rubright says she has decided to drop out of Tampa's race for mayor.

"Unfortunately, we're done," Rubright said Monday. She announced the decision in a Facebook post over the weekend.

Rubright, 41, a Seminole Heights acupuncturist who was active in Occupy Tampa, had intended to gather signatures rather than pay a qualifying fee to get on the March 3 ballot.

But she said Monday that she and her supporters had only gathered about a quarter of the 4,000 signatures she needed and acknowledged that there were problems with many of those signatures. It wouldn't be realistic, she said, to expect that she could gather the remaining signatures by the January qualifying deadline.

"I don't want to waste my time," she said. "I don't want to waste other people's time and energy."

Rubright's platform had called for a citywide minimum wage of $15 per hour, the decriminalization of marijuana and a citizens review board to hear allegations against police.

Rubright's withdrawal leaves incumbent Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who has raised more than $183,000 so far, without a declared opponent in his bid for a second four-year term. If no one else qualifies by the end of qualifying in mid-January, he will be re-elected automatically.